We Need To Talk
by Memic
Summary: Too much is left unsaid and isn't it supposed to be good to talk? This is going to be a number of one shots under the 'We Need To Talk' header, based around conversations that haven't (yet?) happened in the show but probably need/needed to. The first one is BoLo talking about the future. I have a BoLo and Crystal one, and a Bo and Tamsin one in progress & welcome ideas for others.
1. Chapter 1

'If I had a dollar for every time I've heard the word 'side' or one of its various, equally annoying synonyms in the last four years, I swear I could keep Kenzi in booze and shoes for life!' Bo stomps into the clubhouse, ripping the knife-strap from her thigh and hauling it onto the empty sofa along with yet another torn and bloody jacket. 'Not to mention, I would never have to take on another shitty investigating job and therefore get tangled up in Fae – or human for that matter – political bullshit, and once again be prodded and poked and pushed to pick one!'

'Bad day at the office?' Lauren continues to chop tomatoes at the kitchen island but her lopsided grin and twinkling eyes are like a soothing hug and Bo instantly mellows, gravitating towards them for a real one.

'Yeah…but it doesn't matter now because, honey, I'm home.' She wraps her arms around Lauren from behind, nuzzling into her neck until she turns her head to kiss her hello. 'Mmm…smells so good.'

'It's just some marinated chicken to go with the salad.'

'I meant you.'

'Oh.' Lauren smiles, blushing slightly and feeling ridiculous for it. Bo compliments her all the time but she's not sure she'll ever become completely accustomed to it; to how enticing Bo can make her feel. 'Actually, I used your shampoo.'

'Yet another example of my obvious good taste.' Bo moves to the side of her, winking as she reaches across in front to swipe a chunk of tomato and places a quick, playful kiss on Lauren's mouth. 'Do I have time to shower before we eat? I have Griffin gunk on me.'

'You killed a Griffin?' Lauren's voice cracks in horror, her eyes widening as a nonchalant Bo turns and head for the stairs. 'Bo do you have any idea – '

'Of the revered status and symbolism of the Griffin throughout Fae history and their importance to the continuance of blah blah blah – yes, I'm aware. I am uber-aware because I have had the exact same speech from both The Morrigan and The Ash today, who, despite actually wanting the same thing for once, still stubbornly refused to work together to achieve it. Instead, they dragged me in and proceeded with the old Succubus tug-of-war, of which I am so very beyond sick. You'd think Trick would get it but – '

'The Griffin, Bo? Did you...?'

'Knock off one of the few things the Light and Dark both hold dear to teach them a lesson? No. I was tempted though. And the feathered-furry one wasn't exactly a charmer.'

Lauren exhales heavily, releasing the white-knuckle grip she'd had on the countertop. 'So the gunk?'

'Is from saving his flying Lion-Kingness, and thus single-handedly restoring the peace once again.' Bo takes a sardonic bow, twirling her hand through the air with an exaggerated flourish.

'You are a superhero,' Lauren teases. 'But next time could you start with the part where you didn't maim and kill such an important iconic creature, starting a political war and putting a record-breaking bounty on your head?'

Bo smiles endearingly at her still pale girlfriend, head nodding once in capitulation as she moves slowly towards her again, intent on kissing the colour back into her cheeks.

'I'm sorry, babe. You know politics isn't my thing. All this team stuff just drives me nuts.'

'I know.'

Lauren has spent months considering these next words - extensive periods of time ruminating on their intent and meaning, every plausible repercussion, and the best possible way and time and place to bring them into their lives. She likes to think she's pretty thorough in her thinking – methodical and regimented in a way that doesn't exclude - but this particular scenario hadn't once crossed her mind, and as she watches Bo advance on her, the statement just tumbles from her mouth without warning.

'We will have to choose soon, you know.'

Bo stops within arm's reach, her mind racing from confused to frustrated to oddly hopeful in just a few seconds. 'We?'

'Well yes, the choice is kind of dependent on there being a we.'

'Of course there's a we. That's not even a choice, it just is.'

Lauren visibly relaxes, releasing the rigidity in her upper body and leaning lighter on her hands. For a few unsure seconds there, she'd been braced for extremes, for this to go every kind of bad she'd been able to envision and then some because she'd fallen in without plan, without prediction. She doesn't even know where she stands with this yet, has no real starting point from which to lead them, and that unsettles her almost as much as the decision itself. But Bo's gaze hasn't faltered; the surety of feeling in her eyes is unwavering, and Lauren can sense her coaxing her out from under the looming shadow.

'Hmm...so "we" were forced upon you, huh?'

'That actually sounded really romantic in my head. And you know what I mean.'

'Still, it's nice for a girl to hear it once in a while.' Lauren trails a finger along the countertop, dipping her head to look up through her lashes though she's feeling anything but coy.

'I'm a girl,' Bo mutters.

'An insatiable, sex-Goddess of a Succubus girl…' Lauren sighs, abruptly lifting her travelling finger and sweeping it pointedly between them to halt their movements towards each other. '…and that leads us nicely back from our attempts at diversion to the decision to be made.'

'You lost me at sex.'

'I don't want to lose you at all. I don't want either of us to; that's the point. And I know it's a fact of life for all kinds of life; very rarely do pairings...expire simultaneously. Although there are a number of species that are reported to practice mutual death wherein the grieved takes their own life within a specified time of the loss of their love, and there are studies that suggest that dying from a broken heart is actually a biological possibility, and –'

'Lauren, I'm not going to break your heart. And I'm not planning on dying any time soon, are you?'

'Comparatively speaking? ... Yes. As things stand, I'm going to die relatively early on in your life. I'm going to age and ail and die, and despite your often perilous endeavours, chances are you'll end up having to watch it happen. And I don't want that...for either of us.'

'We're barely in our thirties; we have time, so much time to – '

'The average life expectancy for a human female in this country is eighty-four; the average life expectancy for healthy Succubi is closer to eight thousand. In the scale of your life, my remaining decades will seem like nothing.'

'Don't ever say that again,' Bo grinds out, her eyes flashing an intense and angry blue before returning to a wounded brown. 'You are far from nothing.'

'I didn't mean it like that.' Lauren reaches out, catching Bo's fingers loosely in her own, a minimal connection with maximum impact. 'I don't doubt what we are, not anymore. But I worry about what we'll both become if we don't acknowledge what's coming.'

'It doesn't matter.' Bo closes the remaining distance between them in one step, tugging Lauren's hand behind her and holding it in the small of her back. 'We'll beat it, we always do.'

'You can't beat nature, baby.'

'I'm a re-unaligned Succubus in love with a human doctor. Nature smature.'

Lauren smiles, allowing herself to lapse momentarily into the smitten teen she so often feels like, but turning grim as her reply returns them to reality.

'Death, then. We have lost too many to deny it's merciless power. And that rebellion against nature you so eloquently described already has us at a disadvantage. Even if we both get long happy lives by the standards of our respective species, you'll have to watch me die.'

'You don't know that. As we've established, we live in a very dangerous world and I don't know if you've noticed but I have a habit of pissing people off – I could be killed at any time.'

'That's not really a comforting argument.' Lauren's forehead wrinkles in consternation and she leans back to take in the whole of Bo's face. 'Or an argument at all actually. Was there a point?'

'Again, it sounded better in my head. But my point is, anything could happen. Everything we've lost...everyone – they're proof of it. We don't know how long we're going to get – no one does - but what's important is that we stop wasting the time we do have and spend every moment possible in the pursuit and practice of happiness, of making it all count, with each other.'

Lauren gulps – a fairly feeble attempt at restraining her emotion. 'Now that was romantic.'

'Apparently I'm better off not thinking before I speak.'

'Ever the exception.'

'Mmm…flattery will get **you** everywhere.' Bo wraps an arm around Lauren's waist and pulls her in until their bodies are flush and their knees loosely interlocked. She walks the fingers of her other hand slowly across Lauren's bare collarbone, eliciting a delightful shiver which she takes as encouragement to move lower.

'Hmm...you're too good at this.'

'It's kind of my thing.' Bo effortlessly pops an extra button on Lauren's shirt, elongating the V of exposed flesh until it meets a hint of black lace.

'I meant distraction, though I'd be remiss to argue with the other and – oh – as you're currently demonstrating, the two often go hand in hand.'

'Speaking of hands...' Bo continues to work her mouth across Lauren's neck but takes the blonde's hands in her own and slides them under her vest.

'Bo, I'm serious,' Lauren groans, part pleasure, part frustration, equally sexual. 'We need to talk.'

'Four words nobody ever wants to hear.' She pulls her lips from Lauren's skin, pouting and flexing her fingers across her hips in protest. 'Ever.'

'Usually because the people hearing them have avoided hearing other, wholly necessary, words for too long. This is important.'

Bo suddenly pulls away completely, striding purposely towards the front door.

'Bo please don't run away from this, we can't keep avoiding the inevitable, we need to at least discuss it.'

Bo locks the front door, turns back around and points to one of the kitchen stools.

'Then sit down. If you want focus and logic and any kind of sense out of me, we need a minimum safe distance and no interruptions. So I'll be over here.' She moves to lean against the precarious partition leading into the lounge, hears a crack before any real weight is applied and promptly changes her mind. 'Or over here on the battered thrift store sofa that worrying has more strength than the walls holding this place up.'

Lauren is watching her with a look of total adoration on her face, so overwhelmed by the intensity of feeling that tears are pooling in her eyes and clogging her throat. 'God, I love you.'

'Not helping your cause, babe,' Bo jokes softly, perching on the arm of the threadbare couch.

Lauren shakes her head almost imperceptibly, her features lightening and lighting up. 'Well sometimes I can't help myself either. It must be your influence rubbing off on me.'

'Nice choice of words. Are you sure this conversation can't wait, say, an hour?'

'Perhaps. But we both know it wouldn't just be an hour, whereas this could be and then we'd have the rest of the evening for whatever is running through your head right now.'

'Then I am all ears.' Bo sits up straighter, clasping her hands together and resting them on her knees. 'And mouth and tongue when you want them.'

Lauren raises an eyebrow.

'For participating in the conversation, Dr Lewis. Gosh, you have such a filthy mind...Okay, okay, holding the innuendo. But you might want to talk fast. And fasten your top button.'

'Babe...'

'Okay, Succubus, calm thyself. Patience clearly not a virtue for my kind.' Bo cocks a perfectly shaped eyebrow in genuine curiosity. 'I wonder if that's a general Fae thing? Have you conducted studies? I bet you have. Is your lab coat still upstairs?'

'Bo!'

'It's not me, it's…inner-me. Also, not our fault you look so hot in white. Wouldn't it be ironic though?'

'Now I'm lost,' Lauren sighs.

'If it was a Fae thing, I mean – the fixation on immediate gratification. We have these long lives but we don't want to wait for anything.'

'And once again - I don't know how - but you've managed to circle back to where we need to be.'

'Totally my intention all along, oh ye of little faith.' Bo flashes that stunning, sinful smile and it takes every ounce of Lauren's willpower to stay on track.

'Okay. It's not a choice we have to make right now, but after everything that's happened in the last year, I think it should be soon. Too late could be any time and I don't think we should leave anything else to chance. We barely got you back after Kenzi...'

Bo completely sobers, swallowing the last remnants of distraction and focusing intently on Lauren's eyes.

'After she died. You can say it. Kenzi and Hale – they died. And it will never be okay, but in some ways Kenzi went when Hale did, and now they're together, and I can deal with that. And we can say their names without the world ending.'

Bo's brave sorrowful smile almost breaks her - almost convinces her to risk putting this away for another time - but the heady mixture of love and pride and gratitude it elicits spurs her on.

'And that's why we need to make this choice...I can take us either way now; we have real options. But neither is without issue or risk, and I don't know which would be best, or if the long term effects of either would be more or less desirable. What I do know is that either will give us a better shot. And we deserve that. After everything, we at least deserve a real shot.'

Bo looks at her with reluctant understanding, scared to jump on the train before being fully sure of its destination and fearful even if she does know.

'The time is coming for us to choose,' Lauren continues. 'And we have to be united on this. It's the only way we can be together; the only way we can even dream of having it all.'

'The house and the kids and the picket fence,' Bo murmurs through the lump forming in her throat, hope diffusing into that small smile and up into her shimmering eyes.

'Our future.' Lauren gets up off the stool and walks over, taking Bo's hands in her own. 'So what will it be? Human or Fae?'


	2. Chapter 2

_Author note: I love the Crystal character and Lieeeeebs! (And hope she returns in S5) But we all know everything else pales in comparison to BoLo =)_

Bo has spent the whole morning building herself up for this; the whole of the last seventy- two and a bit hours since Lauren chose to stay with the dark instead of coming home with her, if she's honest. She's played out her side of the conversation and every possible way Lauren might respond – geek speak and all – repeatedly, even going so far as to rope Kenzi in to roleplay, until she drew the line after several bottles of wine took Bo's thinking to a wishful, and then straight out wanton, place. There have been many, many imaginings of this moment, but walking into a cold, boxed-up version of Lauren's apartment and being followed directly through the doorway by a total – beautiful and ever so slightly underdressed – stranger, is not something she's prepared for. And neither is the ultra-bright spark in Lauren's arousal as she stands, open-mouthed and unblinking, looking back and forth between the two like she's watching a naked tennis match.

'Can we help you?' Bo demands of the stranger, immediately on the defensive and thrown further still because she's pretty sure this chick is human.

'We?' The hot human crosses her arms over her chest, squeezing her amble breasts together and elongating her already impressive cleavage. 'As in you and the half dozen cattle you're sporting as an outfit?' Her eyes roam slowly down and back up Bo's leatherclad body, lingering just long enough in just the right places to answer the first of Bo's unspoken questions.

'At least I'm "sporting" enough to actually be considered clothed.' Not that she's really complaining about the view, and truth be told, she's left the house in less on more than one occassion.

'Lauren, we need to talk.' The blonde bombshell disregards Bo with an ease she's highly unnaccustomed to and doesn't like one bit.

Her fingers automatically finger the blade strapped to her thigh, though she has no intention or reason to use it. She's actually kind of intrigued by the other woman, drawn to her; the issue is, she can feel how much she and Lauren are 'drawn' to each other too, and she doesn't like that one bit either.

'That's my line,' she forces through gritted teeth, willing her blue-eyed monster not to show herself.

'And who the hell are you?'

'I'm Bo, who the hell are you?' She flashes that sweet dangerous smile that could quite easily go either way, and finally Lauren snaps out of her stupor.

'Bo, this is Crystal.'

'Hi Crystal.' Bo lays the charm on thick enough to smother. 'So nice to meet you.'

'Hi...Bo.' Crystal's dawning realisation places emphasis on the name, and she turns to Lauren with an aggravated expression, shaking her head in disbelief.

'So...' Lauren – super smart and spectacularly socially awkward at times Lauren – is like the proverbial deer in headlights; two cars coming at her and neither one willing to hit the brakes any time soon.

'So...how do you two know each other?' Bo still has that sickly sweet tone; a pretence of naivety that would be blatant to anyone who knows her.

'Funny story actually. The spy banger became the spy bangee.' Lauren smiles, tries real hard not to let it come off as a grimace. 'You might call it karma-induced fate, Kenzi might call it motive for murder.'

'What?' Bo bites, the charm charade plummeting into oblivion. She'd read fancying and flirting, not fucking.

'Which part?' Lauren's turn to play innocent.

'You banged?'

'She banged,' Crystal interjects, smooth forearms still plumping up those distracting...

_Focus, Bo!_

'Thank you Ricky Martin, I was talking to my girlfriend.'

'She's not – '

'I wasn't – '

Lauren and Crystal talking over each other leads them all into a moment of silence, like they're being overly polite and insistent that each other go first when really none of them particularly wants to.

'So you are again?' Crystal looks between the two of them then nods in answer to her own question.

'Crystal...'

'Is that why you left me locked up?'

'It was hardly my choice.'

'Hold on, locked up? How did you two meet again?' Bo's interest in this woman is as conflicted as the rising heat between all three of them, and these are two of the multiple very good reasons that she can't look back in Crystal's direction.

'The Morrigan paid her to...spybang me.' Lauren chews on the inside corner of her mouth, sure she can feel the tug of an inappropriate smile. Perhaps a smattering of nervous laughter.

'And you locked her up?'

'No.'

'Evony locked me up. Lauren just left me there.' Crystal is fast becoming the pissed off third wheel, and they all know it.

'I got her to let you out as soon as I could.' Lauren makes one last attempt to focus on her, to placate her, but Crystal just shakes her head like Lauren is the biggest fool alive because clearly, with Bo in the room – in the world, maybe – it's futile.

'So The Morrigan takes requests from her kept humans now?' Bo snarks, stepping further into the den of boxes, bypassing some of the obstacles between them and leaving Crystal at the door.

'It's not like that; Evony – '

'Evony? Woah, are you about to defend her? Seriously?'

'No.' Lauren is quiet but resolute, lending her voice an authoritive quality that both arouses and perturbs. 'But I can't deny she's made my life...simpler.'

'Has she made you simpler?' Bo's not proud of her spiteful, bratty tone, but she can't help it; she's hurt and bewildered, and agitatingly horny. 'Because the Lauren I know is not stupid enough to believe - '

'Is that why you came here? To insult me and belittle my decision?'

'I came here because we need to talk. About us...' Bo flings her arms wide to signal their surroundings, her face a picture of sorrowful confusion. 'About this. About everything.'

It takes another two hours of arguing for them to overcome the physical, figurative and ideological roadblocks enough to reconnect and work out their tensions in an altogether more familiar and enjoyable way. Crystal had slipped from the room about thirty seconds after she last spoke but neither of them notice - or indeed remember she'd been there at all - until they're lying amidst the cardboard city, recovering from round four.

'So, Crystal huh?' Bo lies on her stomach, head propped in one hand as the nails of the other trail lazily over Lauren's bare body, noting every visible flicker of response on her face.

Lauren's eyes remain closed, her relaxed and satisfied smile faltering only briefly before she recognises the tone in Bo's voice. 'You are unbelievable.'

'I bet you say that to all the girls - ahhh!' Her teasing ends in a squeal as Lauren takes her by surprise - not for the first time today - grasping her around the waist to pull her down and fully across herself before rolling on top and pinning Bo's wrists.

'Are you seriously thinking about other women right now?'

'What can I say? Crystal was kind of hot. Clearly you have excellent taste. Do you think she could be talked into -'

'Oh I think there's been more than enough talking for one day.' And with that, Lauren silences Bo's salacious tongue with her own and leads them into round five.


End file.
